COC Media Releases

Canadian Art Song Project Commissions Ana Sokolović to Compose New Song Cycle for 2017

Toronto, January 20, 2014 - Canadian Art Song Project (CASP)
is pleased to
announce that it has commissioned Montreal - based composer Ana
Sokolović to write a new song cycle as part of its ongoing commitment to
new art song. CASP is a registered charity committed to unearthing,
reinventing, performing and recording Canadian poetry in song. The
Sokolović commission is the seventh commission to come from CASP since
its founding in 2011 by tenor Lawrence Wiliford and pianist Steven
Philcox, and the most significant to date in terms of size and scope.

The Banff Centre partners with Against the Grain Theatre and Canadian Opera Company for innovative new opera training program

This summer, The Banff Centre will partner with Toronto’s Against the Grain Theatre and the Canadian Opera Company for a new performance training program that will take opera off the stage and into the community.

"The Banff Centre has been involved in developing the next generation of opera stars for more than 50 years and this summer we introduce a new and innovative development model for artists with an eye to the future of opera in Canada and internationally," said Carolyn Warren, Vice President, Arts at The Banff Centre. “We’re thrilled to partner with Canadian Opera Company and Against the Grain, organizations that represent both foundation and experiment in this vital art form.”

BEST ARTISTS IN THE WORLD FEATURED IN COC’S 2014/2015 SEASON OF NEW AND CLASSIC COMPANY PRODUCTIONS

Toronto – The Canadian Opera Company unveiled a season dominated by the most important, respected and
talked-about artists working on the operatic world stage today at a public launch of its 2014/2015 season at the
Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts.

The company’s 64th season is comprised entirely of COC productions, featuring three new productions, developed
in partnership with other premier opera companies, and revivals of three classic COC works that have defined the
company’s reputation for artistic excellence and innovation. The COC presents Giuseppe Verdi’s Falstaff in a new
COC production, a revival of its beloved production of Giacomo Puccini’s Madama Butterfly, Wolfgang Amadeus
Mozart’s Don Giovanni in a new COC creation, the revival of its acclaimed staging of Richard Wagner’s Die
Walküre, Gioacchino Rossini’s The Barber of Seville in a new COC production, and the return of the COC’s
iconic double-bill of Béla Bartók’s Bluebeard’s Castle and Arnold Schoenberg’s Erwartung.